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Class jobs
Why I Use Class Jobs in My World Language Classroom Twenty minutes into 2nd hour and my classroom phone rings. “Mrs. Placido, I need you to take attendance please.” UGHHHH I forgot AGAIN? I need a SYSTEM! Class jobs have been a staple in elementary classrooms forever, but in recent years they’ve become increasingly common…
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Numbered Heads Together
We are reading Noches misteriosas en Granada in Spanish 2 right now, and we needed a little ease back into school after Thanksgiving and a little review before we moved forward with the reader. This turned out to be a perfect little activity for today! Best of all, it requires NO PREP! Students should sit…
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Creating interactive input by combining resources
If your students are like mine (normal American teens), they are probably a little antsy right now. We are halfway through the semester, a week away from Thanksgiving, they are still hyped up on Halloween sugar, and apparently the honeymoon phase is LONG GONE. Add to the mix I am heading to ACTFL later this…
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Simple, slow, fun
My mantra for Spanish 2 is all about simple, slow, and fun. And the underlying foundation of everything I do is showing them that I adore them, and that they are special, and that they CAN DO THIS. Last year was really, really hard in Spanish 2. We lost a 9th grade student to suicide…
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Cashnip Kitty
I got a tip from a follower on my facebook page about this story. Sir Whines a Lot, aka the CASHnip Kitty is collecting money for the homeless! I took the news story and made a powerpoint with the photos in under 5 minutes. I then just showed my classes the photos one by one…
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Music Videos as Movie Talk
One of my favorite aspects of my classes is teaching with music, and nothing makes me happier than to hear students say they downloaded the songs I taught them in class! I spend about 6-8 class days on each song, and it is usually our warm-up/bellringer each day. One way I like to incorporate music…
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Planning my “El Salvador Civil War” Unit for Spanish 4
One of my favorite units to teach is my unit on the Civil War in El Salvador leading up to my MS-13 unit. I teach this in Spanish 4 and it is generally really well-received by my students. I think it is important, prior to reading Vida y muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha, that students…
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Creating comprehensible input with commercials
Commercials are a really great way to infuse your language classes with a short burst of authentic language, but they are also really valuable as a vehicle for storytelling and discussion. Commercials are designed to be compelling and to elicit emotions. Paired with activities designed to make them comprehensible, commercials are wonderful for cultivating an…
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An idealist meets the real world
Something I have always struggled with is the way that my own pie-in-the-sky huge teaching ideas don’t always play out in real life the way they worked in my head. I start the year with these awesome summertime ideas that are going to be SO transformative, and then I get back to school in the…
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